Global economic crisis and East Asia: what happens to FTA/EPA negotiations?

Economic nationalism and protectionism looming

President Obama's trade policy?

Future of Asian Economic integration
As for Japan, it has FTA/EPA agreements with Singapore, Mexico, Malaysia, Chile, Thailand, Brunei, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam Switzerland and ASEAN. Negotiations are in an advanced phase with India and ongoing with Australia and the Gulf Cooperative Council. Japan -South Korea talks have been refrozen last August.
There is a growing interest for, and studies underway, mainly by business organizations, for some kind of economic integration agreement (EIA) with the EU. Ambassador Julin pointed out however that there are problems on both sides - cars and electronics being a difficult issue on the European side and in Japan, mainly Keidanren and METI are driving the matter, while other ministries show limited interest.
According to Ambassador Julin, there are still much uncertainty over President Obama's trade policy. In his campaign he was a strong proponent for "fair trade", "American jobs" and "stronger labor and environmental standards in FTAs". Although it it probable that Obama will continue to show some gratitude to labor unions and other protectionist forces for their support in his campaign, internal and external lobbying will probably see to it that he will not go too far, being aware of the risk of a trade war.
The luncheon was ended with a very active Q&A session (read some of the questions and responses in the picture captions below).